With such an impregnating apparatus on an extruder for feeding in a fibrous strand, known from DE 40 16 784 A1, the feeding in of the strand as well as the discharge of the strand following the impregnating occurs on a level plane, with little adaptability as to the requirements of the strand wetting. With another apparatus, known from DE 38 35 574 A1, continuously unidirectionally fiber-reinforced linear profiles can be produced. The extrusion-impregnating apparatus here consists of a level, divided housing. Excess material and glass fiber pieces, which have developed from broken fibers during impregnation, must be discharged via an overflow. The fiber content and the cross-sectional geometry of the linear profiles are adjusted via the discharge nozzle. The area of application for this apparatus is strongly limited because of the special features thereof. From EP 0 300 321 B1, it is known that fibrous bundles are pulled through a plastics chamber. The plastics chamber is fed from the side by an extruder with thermoplastic plastics melt. Rotary devices are installed in the plastics chamber for impregnating the fibrous bundles with molten thermoplastic plastic material and to apply a tension to the fiber bundle. However, said rotary devices permit only a limited adaptation to the requirements for impregnating the fibrous strands.
Further serious disadvantages result from the level arrangement of the above-described known designs. Thus, no satisfactory fiber strand guidance is possible, for example, for a central strand discharge that is desired for many applications, in which case the many individual fibrous strands must be combined to form a single strand or a strand profile. Another disadvantage of the known designs is the irregular flow of the melt in the impregnating nozzle, caused by edge influences or an asymmetric run of the fibrous strands. Furthermore, an application over a wide range is countered by the relatively expensive production engineering and the limited options for application. Last but not least, a compact design is no longer possible with the frequently required large number of individual fibrous strands.